Author:

Warren Rogers
(Westmont College)

The Conference Experience for Undergraduates (CEU), held annually in the APS
Division of Nuclear Physics since 1998, has become a valuable addition to
the fall DNP meetings. Since its inception 10 years ago, approximately 730
undergraduate students from over 60 colleges and universities from around
the country (and a few from abroad) have participated. The goal of the
program is to provide students who have conducted undergraduate research in
nuclear science a ``capstone'' conference experience, with the goal toward
strengthening retention of talented students in the field. In addition to
the main conference, the CEU includes extra activities for the students,
including the main research poster session, two undergraduate nuclear
physics seminars, and a graduate school information session. CEU application
materials are considered by an independent review committee, and travel and
lodging grants are awarded based on project merit. Financial support is
provided by the NSF, DOE, and DNP. At the recent 10$^{th}$ anniversary CEU,
a mini-symposium was organized as part of the DNP conference, at which
former CEU students (now graduate students, post-docs, and professors) had
opportunity to talk about their research and the influence that
undergraduate research and conference participation had on their career
paths. Survey and anecdotal data indicating benefits of CEU participation,
as well as initial results from career path tracking will be presented.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2008.APR.H4.1